Wall St. Journal Plans Polish Version

January 02, 1994|By New York Times News Service.

WARSAW — In a sign of how far Poland's economy has come, The Wall Street Journal's European edition is planning a Polish version of the paper as a weekly supplement to Poland's biggest-circulation daily.

The supplement, if approved by The Journal, will appear inside Monday issues of Gazeta Wyborcza and will be aimed at Poland's growing number of business people who want to learn about European and global financial trends.

It would be the first version of The Wall Street Journal in a language other than English.

"One of the reasons we're interested is that the private sector in Poland has grown so quickly," said Frederick Kempe, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal/Europe.

Because relatively few Polish business people speak English, The Journal sees the venture as a way to reach new readers, who may eventually learn enough English to read the daily Journal, Kempe said. The Wall Street Journal/Europe had a circulation of 57,505 in the first half of 1993.

Wanda Rapaczynski, executive director of Gazeta Wyborcza, said the project would add to the prestige of Gazeta.

"Fred came to us with the seed idea, and we thought there was a need and it would be good for us," she said.

A decision on the venture will be made early this year, Kempe said. Response from potential advertisers, ranging from banks to makers of expensive cars, looks "very positive," he said.

Gazeta Wyborcza would have full access to Wall Street Journal/Europe articles and would choose which to run in the supplement, Kempe said.

A prototype of the 12-page supplement shows the Journal nameplate in black and the Gazeta nameplate in red. Rapaczynski, who previously worked in New York as vice president of new-product development at Citibank, said first-quarter advertising contracts had been signed with a number of companies.

The supplement's front page, which relies on long columns of type and is devoid of photographs, has some resemblance to that of The Journal. A regular Journal feature, the Business and Finance column, is copied with short items about international companies.

Poland already has a lively financial press, with two weeklies and one daily specializing in business. But these papers dwell almost exclusively on Polish issues.

With the expansion of the Warsaw stock exchange-the value of its index increased sevenfold in 1993-and the entry of more outside investors, the Polish business community is becoming increasingly hungry for global financial news.

The Wall Street Journal/Europe, The International Herald Tribune and The Financial Times are sold on some newsstands in Warsaw and other large Polish cities, but Rapaczynski described the language barrier as "very severe."

In Gazeta Wyborcza, The Journal has found a partner that is one of the most respected newspapers in Eastern Europe.

Edited by Adam Michnik and Helena Luczywo, who were leading figures in the Solidarity underground movement of the 1980s, Gazeta started in 1989 as the campaign newspaper of Solidarity and quickly grew. It is the only newspaper in Eastern Europe that holds the largest circulation in a country and also is a serious newspaper, with reliable domestic and foreign coverage and more than a dozen regional editions.

Gazeta has a daily circulation of 550,000, almost three times that of its closest Polish rival. Cox Newspapers of Atlanta, which publishes The Atlanta Journal and Constitution and other newspapers, acquired a 12 percent stake in Gazeta in 1993.